Twisted Illusions
by Isabella Grey
Summary: This is a poem about Cullen and his imprisonment during the Broken Circle quest line.


Here she is again,  
Smiling and waving,  
Beckoning him to come with her,  
His future he would be saving.

"Why be locked in a cage?"  
She would ask,  
"When you could be with me, love?"  
Her face just as pretty as a mask.

'She is not real.'  
Cullen reminded himself as always,  
'She's just another trick,  
Of the Circle's damned hallways.'

The blood mages were taunting him,  
As if they hadn't done enough,  
With visions of his mage infatuation.  
Forbidden love had never been so rough.

"Get away from me, you vile demon,  
You're nothing but another one of the fiends."  
He yelled shutting her image out,  
"You know nothing of what she means."

When he opened his eyes,  
She was no longer there.  
He breathed a sigh of relief,  
Even if he's still locked in the mages' snare.

Then to his surprise,  
She came right back,  
Walking in with three more people,  
Her renewed attention on him did not slack.

"Cullen! Don't you recognize me?"  
She asked with an unexpected kindness.  
He was still convinced that she was an illusion,  
As the mages realized her image demanded more refineness.

"Shifting through my thoughts..."  
His lips began to mutter,  
All the feeling he always had to her,  
And he hated them all as his duty to oppose her made him suffer.

She seemed shocked,  
Upon hearing his secret shame.  
May the Maker forgive him,  
But she was one to blame.

She was a mage and he was a templar,  
To be in love with her was so wrong,  
Because of the danger she had with her connection to the Fade,  
But these feelings he had not been able to control for so long.

She seemed so hurt by his words,  
And that's when he realized she was real.  
She had come back to the Tower and to him,  
Not knowing this man's heart her illusions had tried to steal.

He was slightly overjoyed,  
But only for a moment in time,  
As she proved her loyalties were to the mages,  
Like Irving and others were not already in an abomination's bind.

He tried to warn her that she really did not know,  
What horrible transfiguration were happening in that room.  
But she was too stubborn and headstrong to realize,  
Her compassion would bring them all to their doom.

As she left with her friends,  
His anger did boil and bubble.  
How could she not see at all,  
That her actions would only bring more trouble?

Unfortunately for him,  
The purple walls still held firm.  
No matter how he pounded,  
He was not released from his prison term.

As the sounds in the Harrowing Chamber did die,  
He was finally let go.  
She returned with her party and Irving,  
The last man left alive from the horror show.

He followed them down to the commander.  
He watched her with amaze.  
She looked so the same and so beautiful still.  
The fire of determination in her eyes could set the world ablaze.

If she was only not born a mage,  
He could have been with her forever,  
But the Maker had other plans and he could not think of loving her,  
As his templar training made this possible match a never.

He noticed right then,  
He was not the only one looking at her like that.  
The blonde haired man that was with her was also doing the same.  
He was a templar too grinning like that Cheshire Cat.

How could the Maker be so cruel,  
To bring her back with a new lover,  
One that was so like him yet had been free of the templar's restrictions?  
It made Cullen just want to run for cover.

He vented his anger as they talked with Knight-Commander Greagoir.  
Her betrayal towards him would make the mage suffer all.  
He did not want to see they be freed out upon Ferelden.  
They shouldn't even be allowed to live within the Tower's protective wall.

He let his anger talk for him with his words full of malice.  
He hoped to sway for death to the mages and an easy to see choice,  
But she had more sway and conviction to get the Circle restored.  
He swore he could hear the dead and the future blood mages' rejoice.

He hated her and all being outside the Tower had given her,  
A new lover and a new life without him as she left at the ending of the day,  
A part of wished for himself to be put back into the mages' cage,  
At least then with his twisted illusions of her forever she would be his to stay.


End file.
